NDC and One Order: Lawyering the Transition to Modern Airline Retailing

Introduction: a generational shift in airline IT

Airlines are in the midst of a generational shift in their IT systems as they move from legacy GDS and PSS platforms to a future state based on the NDC and One Order initiatives. The goal: a modern, dynamic retailing environment that allows airlines to serve their customers with personalised, transparent product offerings.

Achieving this requires an extensive airline digital transformation project to replace systems and processes which in many cases have their origins in the mid-to-late Twentieth Century era of paper ticketing.

This article looks at what this means for the airline legal teams lawyering retailing transformation projects. In particular, it focuses on the pitfalls and obstacles in airline IT contracts that can cause avoidabl